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The starring role played by a Toronto garbage truck at a Progressive Conservative campaign event has sparked some trash talk in the Etobicoke-Lakeshore byelection.

With the vote looming Aug. 1 in a close race, Liberal candidate (and city councillor) Peter Milczyn said his Tory rival (and deputy mayor) Doug Holyday contradicted his own “respecting taxpayers” mantra with the publicity stunt Wednesday.

“Something stinks, and it’s not the garbage truck,” Milczyn said in a statement.

“If Doug Holyday stepped down for the duration of the campaign, then how does he justify using City of Toronto resources during a byelection campaign?” added Milczyn, who is also on leave from his city position.

Conservative Leader Tim Hudak and Holyday had the truck on loan from Green For Life, a private contractor for the city, to highlight how Holyday, as a former mayor of Etobicoke in the 1990s, contracted-out trash collection to save taxpayers $1 million annually at the time.

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“He’s the kind of guy who protects the pocket of the taxpayer … we need that at Queen’s Park,” Hudak said, taking aim at the minority Liberal government’s spending of at least $585 million to cancel planned power plants in nearby Mississauga and Oakville.

The Conservatives insisted there was nothing improper about using the garbage truck — complete with a large Toronto logo — because it is owned by a private company and was not taken off a garbage route for the morning announcement in a leafy neighbourhood near Bloor St. W. and East Mall.

The Liberals disagreed.

“I find it hard to believe that any resident of Etobicoke-Lakeshore can simply call up city hall and borrow a garbage truck for a few hours,” Milczyn said.

Green For Life chief executive Patrick Dovigi told the Star that “the deputy mayor requested a truck so we supplied a truck. We weren’t aware of the circumstances.”

Dovigi confirmed the truck was not pulled from a garbage route and said the request came from “one of his (Holyday’s) staff … when the deputy mayor calls and asks for a truck, we supply it.”

The city’s solid waste department declined to comment on the propriety of having a truck with the Toronto logo present at a partisan political event, but spokeswoman Siobhan Ramsay said “no solid waste staff were advised or involved with arranging the GFL vehicle.”

Etobicoke-Lakeshore opened up when Laurel Broten, who had represented the riding for the Liberals since former premier Dalton McGuinty’s 2003 sweep, resigned a few weeks ago as MPP and intergovernmental affairs minister.

Conservatives are hoping Holyday’s high profile and record as mayor in Etobicoke before the amalgamation of Toronto’s former boroughs will give the party a much-needed toe-hold in the city, where the party has been shut out for 10 years.

Other byelections are in Scarborough-Guildwood, Windsor-Tecumseh, London West and Ottawa South, the seat left vacant by McGuinty’s resignation.

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